


Don't You Dare Forget

by Jediknight_7567



Series: Star Wars Ficlets [3]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-04
Updated: 2015-01-04
Packaged: 2018-03-05 10:52:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3117455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jediknight_7567/pseuds/Jediknight_7567
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Captain Rex falls in battle, Ahsoka feels it in the Force. Anakin takes it upon himself to give her the holo he'd recorded in case of his death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't You Dare Forget

            Ahsoka’s lightsaber halted in the middle of a downward strike, every muscle in her body suddenly clenched tightly. The droid she’d been hacking to pieces fell to the ground, useless servos unable to hold it up. Something had changed in the Force. A life was taken. She had begun to ignore feeling death in the Force, it was all too common on the battlefield. But now… now this was a life she was close to. It wasn’t Anakin, she could still feel his ball of pure red light humming through the battle. And she could see him less than ten meters to her left.

            Who else was even here?

            Soon Anakin halted as well, standing up straight and flicking his lightsaber off. They both felt the soul cry out in pain for a split second then find itself snuffed out just as quickly. Clone troopers ceased firing when their general and commander stopped, soon followed by the droids. Every single one of the B-1 battle droids glanced around, unsure as to why the battle had stopped so quickly.

            “Rex is down.”

            The clone’s voice was calm and collected despite the anger that shook it. Ahsoka’s chest felt like it was caving in. He wasn’t just down. He was dead. The clone captain wasn’t coming back. _Her_ captain wasn’t coming back. And despite the fact that she felt like everything was pointless now, she ignited her lightsabers and attacked the confused droids in a flurry of humming blades and deadly rage.

            The battle returned to the same pace, but Anakin stood in the middle of it all and watched Ahsoka. She appeared in the Force as a black spot surrounded by white hot rage. It terrified him. He knew he never appeared like that, even in his all-too-common rages. To see his Padawan with such a darkness inside her was… unsettling. He feared that in the course of the battle she would find herself on the Dark Side, unable to come back.

* * *

 

            “Here,” Anakin snapped. Ahsoka looked up just in time to catch the ration stick and holo-communicator he’d thrown to her. The ration she could understand, but the holo was another story.

            “What the hell is this for?” she asked, turning it over and over in her hands.

            “Just watch it. I’ll be outside.” Anakin went to press the button and close the door but halted for a moment. “Tell me when you’re done, there’s something you’ll want to see.”

            He was barely even gone before Ahsoka stuck the ration stick between her teeth, holding it there while she turned on the holo. A mini hologram of Rex in his grey fatigues popped up. Armor gone he looked much more unassuming. More like a skinny university kid than a soldier. The edges of the full color 501st Legion symbol that stretched over his upper shoulder were visible at the neckline of his tunic. She’d only seen that tattoo, along with the Jaig eyes on his chest, once when she walked in on him, Fives, and Echo preparing for a battle. Looking back on that time she couldn’t help but smile at how awkward they were around each other. Now Echo was gone. Rex was gone.

            Before she could dwell on that fact any longer, Rex’s voice came through the holo, tinny and scratchy sounding.

            “Hey General—I… Anakin. Ahsoka, Fives, Obi-Wan, whoever is watching this. Whoever picked this thing up, get it to Ahsoka for me, eh? She needs to see what’s in it. To nearly everyone, if you’re watching this, I died in battle. I’m gone, and I’m not coming back. I’m sure you’ll all miss me, but please don’t mourn me for too long. There’s a war on, and there’s nothing that can be done now.

            “I don’t care if you can do anything about this with the Force, I don’t want it. I want to rest in peace. Now is the point where you might want to give this to Ahsoka.”

            Hearing him speak again, even if it was through the tiny speaker of a communicator, brought a bit of hope back into her heart and tears to her eyes.

            “I’m just going to hope this is you, littl’un. And I’m going to say what I couldn’t, what I shouldn’t. I have no right to do this to you. I have no right to take away everything you knew. But you have a right to hear this.” Ahsoka braced herself, knowing the words that came next may change nearly everything. “I love you. There, I said it, you know now. Before you start crying over this let me make two requests I know you and Anakin will try your hardest to carry out. He already knows them, but you need to know.

            “One, I want my body taken off the battlefield. I know this is breaking protocol, but I don’t care. I don’t want to rot on a battlefield and I know you don’t want that for me. Two, when you get me back to Coruscant, please give me some form of a funeral. I don’t think I could rest without one.

            “Three—wait I don’t have a three what am I doing? Just. Don’t forget me, okay? I don’t… I don’t think I could deal with being forgotten the way my brothers have. Please just hold onto my ID chip. If you can ever figure out how to hack into the thing, there might be something interesting.

            “Again, Ahsoka, I love you. I may not have been able to say it for the longest time, but I do. I did. I’m sorry.”

            The holo cut and Ahsoka dropped the projector to the floor, watching it clatter around for a moment. Sobs suddenly racked her body, tears streamed down her cheeks. For five minutes, she felt nothing but the heat of blood rushing to her montrals, her chest tightening and forcing the breath out of her body.

            When she left the room, Anakin didn’t question the puffiness of her eyes or the way she absentmindedly gnawed on the ration stick he’d given her, avoiding eye contact at all costs. She followed him in silence through the durasteel halls of the cruiser, unsure what they were even walking toward.

            Anakin stopped at the entrance to medbay, pressing the button and letting Ahsoka enter alone. The group of clones gathered around a bed were her only clue as to where she was meant to go. She saw Fives on the other side of the bed holding a gloved hand over his mouth as if he were going to puke. He looked just as bad as she did, if a little more beaten down from battle.

            As she approached, the clones parted to reveal Rex’s body, still in full armor but with his helmet removed and placed beside him. It had all the normal scrapes he gained in battle, accompanied by a bullet hole through his shoulder paldron, directly over his heart.

            A wordless cry escaped her as the tears began again, her knees going weak. She collapsed beside the bed, grabbing at his gloved hand that no longer held all the warmth she was used to. The cold stiffness of his hand terrified her. It solidified what she already knew to be true.

            Rex was gone.

            She barely managed to get back to her feet and reach up to put a hand on his cheek. His dyed blonde hair had grown out some since his last round of leave days and was in desperate need of bleaching again. Despite his efforts to keep himself clean shaven, his normal stubble covered his cheeks. Everything looked normal, as if he was sleeping. But something was off about his face. He was at rest. His furrowed brow and normally tight mouth had relaxed, and every feature gave him an otherworldly sense. Like he shouldn’t even exist in this world.

            Ahsoka didn’t leave his side the entire way back to Coruscant, though clones came and went with Fives staying the longest. Rex was all he had left since Echo’s death, but now Rex was gone. Fives had no one. At least Ahsoka had her master and the rest of the Order.

            She barely noticed when they docked, barely looked up as she accompanied Rex’s body through the Republic base to the Jedi Temple. Anakin left Rex in her care while he ensured the plans for Rex’s funeral with the Council.

            Everything was a blur until she stood in the lower levels of the Temple, watching Rex’s body be engulfed by flames. A Jedi funeral for a clone.

Her cloak hid most of her face as she fought off tears. It was torture watching his body turn to ashes, but at least he was at peace. She’d avenged him. She’d mourned him. She’d gotten him his funeral.

            Now it was time for her to fight for both of them.

 


End file.
